You have a pimple. It appeared overnight, it is red and angry, and you want it gone before tomorrow. So you reach for the toothpaste on your bathroom counter because someone — a friend, a parent, a TikTok video — told you it works. You dab a small amount on the spot, let it dry, and go to bed hoping for the best.

This scenario has played out in bathrooms for decades, long before social media made it go viral. The toothpaste trick is one of the most persistent acne myths in existence, and it endures because it is not entirely without basis. Toothpaste does contain ingredients that can dry out a pimple. The problem is that those same ingredients — along with several others never meant for facial skin — cause irritation, chemical burns, and barrier damage that can leave your skin in worse shape than the pimple ever did.

If you have been wondering whether toothpaste helps with acne, or if you have tried it and ended up with a red, flaky patch where your pimple used to be, you are not alone. Let us break down what is actually happening, what the research says, and what you should use instead.

Quick Answer: Does Toothpaste Help Acne?

No. Toothpaste is not good for acne and dermatologists strongly advise against using it on your skin. Here is the short version:

  • Toothpaste can dry out a pimple, but it does so by irritating the surrounding skin — not by treating acne
  • Ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate, menthol, and hydrogen peroxide cause inflammation, chemical burns, and contact dermatitis on facial skin
  • Modern toothpaste formulas have changed — they no longer contain the triclosan that gave the old myth its (limited) scientific basis
  • The irritation toothpaste causes often looks worse than the original pimple — redness, peeling, and sometimes hyperpigmentation
  • Proven spot treatments exist — benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, and pimple patches work better with no skin damage

If you are dealing with persistent breakouts, a dermatologist can recommend treatments that actually work. Learn about proven acne treatment options.

Why Does Toothpaste Seem to Help Acne?

The toothpaste-on-pimples myth did not come from nowhere. There are real reasons why it appears to work in the short term, and understanding them helps explain why the trick ultimately does more harm than good.

The Drying Effect

The most obvious reason people think toothpaste helps acne is that it dries out blemishes. When you apply toothpaste to a pimple and leave it on overnight, you wake up to a flattened, less swollen spot. That feels like success. But the mechanism behind this drying effect is not targeted or gentle — it is indiscriminate chemical irritation.

Toothpaste contains drying agents like baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and calcium carbonate that absorb moisture from whatever they contact. On a pimple, they draw out fluid from the lesion. But they also draw moisture from the healthy skin surrounding it, leading to dehydration, flaking, and tightness. The pimple may look smaller, but the surrounding skin is now compromised.

The Triclosan Factor (No Longer Relevant)

Here is where the myth gets interesting from a historical perspective. For decades, many toothpaste brands contained triclosan, an antibacterial agent that does have demonstrated antimicrobial activity against Cutibacterium acnes (C. acnes) — the bacterium most closely associated with acne. A 2010 study in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment found that triclosan-based products showed some efficacy against acne bacteria in laboratory settings.

But in 2017, the FDA banned triclosan from over-the-counter antiseptic wash products due to concerns about hormonal disruption and antibiotic resistance. While the ban specifically targeted hand soaps and body washes, most major toothpaste manufacturers voluntarily removed triclosan from their formulas in the years that followed. Colgate removed triclosan from Colgate Total — the last major toothpaste to contain it — in 2019. If you are using a modern toothpaste, the one ingredient that had any legitimate antibacterial relevance to acne is almost certainly not in it.

The Menthol and Mint Sensation

When you apply toothpaste to a pimple, you feel a tingling or cooling sensation from ingredients like menthol, peppermint oil, or eucalyptol. That sensation can feel like the product is "working" — actively fighting the pimple. In reality, it is a mild irritation response. Your skin is reacting to a chemical irritant, not receiving therapeutic treatment. The cooling effect is a sensory experience, not a clinical one.

What to expect: If you have used toothpaste on a pimple and it seemed to work, what you experienced was aggressive drying of the blemish through chemical irritation — not acne treatment. The pimple may have flattened temporarily, but the surrounding skin was likely left red, dry, or peeling. Any improvement was cosmetic and short-lived, while the skin damage can take days or weeks to heal.

What Is Actually in Toothpaste (and Why It Harms Your Skin)

To understand why toothpaste is not good for acne, it helps to look at what is actually in a typical tube. Toothpaste is formulated to clean tooth enamel — one of the hardest substances in the human body. Your facial skin, by contrast, is some of the thinnest and most sensitive skin you have. These are two radically different surfaces with radically different needs.

Toothpaste Ingredient Purpose in Toothpaste Effect on Facial Skin
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) Creates foaming action for cleaning Strips natural oils, disrupts skin barrier, triggers irritation and inflammation
Calcium carbonate / baking soda Mild abrasives to scrub enamel Too harsh for facial skin; causes micro-abrasions, excessive drying, and pH disruption
Hydrogen peroxide Whitening agent for teeth Can cause chemical burns, hypopigmentation, and oxidative damage to skin cells
Menthol / peppermint oil Provides fresh flavor and sensation Contact irritant; causes redness, stinging, and can worsen inflammatory acne
Fluoride Strengthens tooth enamel Can cause perioral dermatitis — a rash of small, acne-like bumps around the mouth
Artificial dyes and flavors Color and taste Potential allergens; can trigger allergic contact dermatitis on sensitive facial skin

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate: The Biggest Problem

Of all the ingredients in toothpaste, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is arguably the most harmful to acne-prone skin. SLS is a surfactant — it breaks down oils and creates the foaming action you associate with brushing your teeth. On your skin, it does the same thing, stripping the lipid layer that forms your skin barrier.

SLS is so reliably irritating that dermatological researchers actually use it as a standard skin irritant in clinical patch testing. A 2005 study in Contact Dermatitis demonstrated that SLS significantly increases transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and causes measurable disruption to the stratum corneum — the outermost protective layer of your skin. When you apply toothpaste containing SLS to a pimple, you are applying a known irritant to already-inflamed skin.

The pH Problem

Healthy facial skin has a slightly acidic pH of around 4.5 to 5.5, which helps maintain the acid mantle — a thin, protective film that inhibits bacterial growth and supports skin barrier function. Toothpaste is formulated to be alkaline, with a pH typically between 7 and 10, because that is what works for cleaning teeth and maintaining oral health.

When you apply an alkaline product to your face, it disrupts the acid mantle. Research published in the British Journal of Dermatology has shown that raising skin pH promotes the growth of C. acnes and other pathogenic bacteria while suppressing beneficial microorganisms. In other words, toothpaste creates a skin environment where acne bacteria thrive — the opposite of what you want.

Red flag: If you apply toothpaste to a pimple and wake up with a red, raw, or peeling patch of skin, you have experienced a chemical irritation or mild burn. Do not apply more toothpaste. Gently cleanse the area with lukewarm water and a mild, fragrance-free cleanser, then apply a simple moisturizer or healing ointment like plain petroleum jelly. If the irritation does not improve within a few days or the area blisters, see a dermatologist.

Real Risks of Using Toothpaste on Acne

Beyond the general irritation, putting toothpaste on pimples carries specific dermatological risks that are well-documented in clinical literature.

Contact Dermatitis

Toothpaste is one of the more common causes of contact dermatitis around the mouth (perioral area), and applying it directly to your face amplifies that risk. There are two types:

  • Irritant contact dermatitis — caused by the direct chemical irritation from SLS, menthol, or abrasive particles. This produces redness, dryness, and stinging at the application site.
  • Allergic contact dermatitis — a true allergic reaction to an ingredient like cinnamal (a common flavoring), cocamidopropyl betaine, or propylene glycol. This can cause itching, swelling, and blistering that spreads beyond where the toothpaste was applied.

A review published in Dermatitis identified toothpaste as a significant and underrecognized cause of allergic contact dermatitis, particularly from flavoring agents like cinnamal and spearmint oil. When you use toothpaste as a spot treatment, you are exposing your skin to allergens it was never intended to contact in this way.

Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation

For people with darker skin tones, the irritation from toothpaste can trigger post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) — dark spots that persist long after the pimple and the irritation have healed. PIH occurs when inflammation stimulates melanocytes (pigment-producing cells) to overproduce melanin. The stronger the inflammatory response, the darker and more persistent the resulting mark.

This means the toothpaste "cure" can leave you with a dark spot that lasts weeks or months — far longer than the pimple would have lasted on its own. The American Academy of Dermatology notes that PIH is one of the most common reasons people with skin of color seek dermatological care, and avoiding unnecessary skin irritation is a key preventive measure.

Chemical Burns

Leaving toothpaste on the skin for extended periods — especially overnight, as most recommendations suggest — can result in genuine chemical burns. Whitening toothpastes containing hydrogen peroxide are particularly risky, as the peroxide concentration in these products can cause oxidative damage to skin cells when left in prolonged contact. The result is a raw, painful area that takes significantly longer to heal than a pimple and may scar.

Making Acne Worse Through Barrier Damage

Perhaps the most counterproductive consequence of using toothpaste on acne is that the skin barrier damage it causes can lead to more breakouts. When the barrier is compromised:

  • Skin becomes dehydrated, triggering compensatory oil production — your sebaceous glands produce more sebum to replace what was stripped away, clogging pores
  • Bacteria penetrate more easily into hair follicles, seeding new breakouts
  • The skin becomes more reactive to other products in your routine, creating a cycle of irritation and inflammation
  • Existing acne treatments (retinoids, benzoyl peroxide) become harder to tolerate on damaged skin, potentially forcing you to pause treatments that were actually working

What to expect: If you have been using toothpaste on pimples regularly, you may notice that your skin around those areas is chronically dry, red, or more prone to new breakouts. This is the barrier damage cycle in action. Stopping the toothpaste and switching to a gentle, non-comedogenic moisturizer will help your barrier recover over the course of one to two weeks.

What to Use Instead of Toothpaste for Acne

The good news is that every reason someone reaches for toothpaste — wanting to shrink a pimple fast, dry it out, or reduce redness overnight — has a better, safer solution that actually treats acne without damaging your skin.

Benzoyl Peroxide Spot Treatment

If you want something that kills acne bacteria the way you hoped toothpaste would, benzoyl peroxide is the gold standard. It penetrates the pore to kill C. acnes bacteria directly, and unlike toothpaste, it is specifically formulated for skin application at controlled concentrations (typically 2.5% to 10%).

A meta-analysis in the British Journal of Dermatology confirmed benzoyl peroxide's effectiveness against inflammatory acne, finding it comparable to topical antibiotics for reducing lesion counts. Over-the-counter spot treatments containing 2.5% benzoyl peroxide provide effective bacterial reduction with less irritation than higher concentrations — making them ideal for targeted application on individual pimples.

Salicylic Acid

Salicylic acid (a beta hydroxy acid, or BHA) is oil-soluble, which means it penetrates into clogged pores to dissolve the dead skin cells and sebum that create acne lesions. It also has anti-inflammatory properties that reduce redness and swelling. Available in concentrations of 0.5% to 2% over the counter, salicylic acid spot treatments address the pore-clogging problem at its source without the skin barrier destruction caused by toothpaste.

Pimple Patches (Hydrocolloid Bandages)

Hydrocolloid pimple patches are one of the most effective overnight spot treatments available — and they work through a completely different mechanism than drying the pimple out. These thin, adhesive patches absorb pus and fluid from a blemish while creating a moist wound-healing environment that promotes faster resolution. They also physically protect the pimple from touching, picking, and bacterial contamination.

Pimple patches are especially useful for whiteheads and pimples that have come to a head. They will not treat deep, cystic acne, but for surface-level breakouts, they are a fast, gentle, and effective option that leaves no irritation behind.

Prescription Spot Treatments

For more stubborn or recurrent breakouts, prescription-strength options include:

  • Topical retinoids (tretinoin, adapalene) — normalize skin cell turnover to prevent clogged pores and promote faster healing of existing lesions
  • Topical antibiotics (clindamycin) — reduce acne bacteria and inflammation, typically prescribed alongside benzoyl peroxide to prevent resistance
  • Combination products — formulations that pair a retinoid or antibiotic with benzoyl peroxide for multi-target treatment

Comparison: Toothpaste vs. Proven Spot Treatments

Factor Toothpaste Benzoyl Peroxide (2.5%) Pimple Patch
Kills acne bacteria Minimally (no triclosan in modern formulas) Yes, penetrates into pores No (works mechanically, not chemically)
Reduces inflammation No, causes inflammation Yes Yes (promotes moist wound healing)
Damages skin barrier Yes, significantly Can cause mild dryness at application site No
Risk of scarring / PIH High (from irritation and chemical burns) Low (when used as directed) Very low
Dermatologist recommended No Yes Yes
Approximate cost Already in your bathroom $5 to $15 (OTC) $5 to $12 per pack

The price of a benzoyl peroxide spot treatment or a pack of pimple patches is comparable to a tube of toothpaste — except these products are designed for your skin and actually treat acne rather than causing collateral damage.

When a Pimple Needs More Than a Spot Treatment

Spot treatments — whether benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, or pimple patches — are effective for the occasional breakout. But if you are regularly reaching for something to put on pimples, that pattern itself is a signal. Frequent or persistent acne is a medical condition that benefits from a treatment plan addressing the underlying causes, not just individual blemishes as they appear.

Acne is driven by four interconnected factors: excess sebum production, abnormal skin cell turnover that clogs pores, bacterial overgrowth, and inflammation. Spot treatments address one or two of these at a surface level. A comprehensive treatment plan — built by a dermatologist around your specific acne type and severity — targets all of them.

Treatments that address acne systemically include:

  • Topical retinoids — prevent the clogged pores that cause breakouts in the first place
  • Doxycycline — an oral antibiotic that reduces inflammation and bacterial load for moderate acne
  • Spironolactone — blocks the hormonal signals that drive excess oil production in people with hormonal acne
  • Isotretinoin (Accutane) — the most effective treatment available for persistent acne that has not responded to other options; it targets all four acne-causing factors simultaneously

If you are dealing with acne that keeps coming back, you do not need a better spot treatment — you need a treatment plan. That is exactly what we do at Honeydew. Our providers create personalized acne treatment plans tailored to your skin type, acne severity, and goals. We offer same-day or next-day virtual appointments, so you can start getting real treatment without waiting weeks for an in-person visit.

What to expect: When you see one of our providers, they will evaluate your acne type, discuss your history with previous treatments (including any home remedies), and recommend a plan that may include prescription topicals, oral medications, or both. Most patients begin seeing improvement within four to six weeks of starting treatment. Visit our pricing page for details on membership options.

Other Acne Home Remedies to Avoid

Toothpaste is not the only household product that gets recommended as a DIY acne treatment. Several other popular home remedies carry similar risks of irritation and skin damage without providing meaningful acne treatment.

  • Rubbing alcohol — strips the skin barrier just like SLS in toothpaste; causes severe dryness and rebound oil production
  • Lemon juice — highly acidic (pH ~2) and phototoxic; can cause chemical burns and dark spots, especially with sun exposure
  • Baking soda paste — highly alkaline (pH ~9); disrupts the acid mantle and can cause irritant dermatitis
  • Apple cider vinegar — too acidic for undiluted application; can cause chemical burns and does not penetrate pores to treat acne
  • Garlic — contains allicin, which is a skin irritant; can cause contact dermatitis and burns when applied topically

The pattern here is clear: household products are formulated for purposes other than skincare, and repurposing them as acne treatments introduces unnecessary risks. Acne treatments designed for skin — whether over the counter or prescription — have been tested for safety and efficacy at concentrations appropriate for facial application. Toothpaste has been tested for teeth.

Red flag: If you see advice online recommending applying any household product to your face as an acne treatment — toothpaste, lemon juice, baking soda, or otherwise — treat it with skepticism. The American Academy of Dermatology advises against DIY home remedies for acne and recommends using products specifically formulated for skin or consulting a dermatologist for persistent breakouts.

The Bottom Line

Does toothpaste help acne? It does not. The myth persists because toothpaste can produce a visible drying effect on a pimple — but that effect comes at the cost of skin barrier damage, chemical irritation, and an increased risk of hyperpigmentation and scarring. Modern toothpastes do not even contain the antibacterial ingredient (triclosan) that gave this hack its original — and already thin — rationale.

Every function people hope toothpaste will serve has a purpose-built skincare alternative that works better and safer. Benzoyl peroxide kills acne bacteria inside the pore. Salicylic acid unclogs pores from within. Pimple patches absorb fluid and promote healing without touching healthy skin. These products cost about the same as a tube of toothpaste and do not leave you with a chemical burn where your pimple used to be.

And if you are reaching for spot treatments regularly — whether toothpaste or something better — that is a sign your acne could benefit from a real treatment plan. Our providers at Honeydew can help you move from reactive pimple management to proactive acne treatment that stops breakouts before they start. Because your skin deserves something actually designed for it.